Trailer: I Am A Great Man

This is a trailer for the film I have a short cameo in. It's a fairly low budget movie, but judging from the clips they showed me on Sunday I reckon it could be quite a success if they can get the distribution right.

Click HERE to take part in a one question poll which asks if you would go to see I AM A GREAT MAN based on this trailer.

Not Out Of The Woods Yet

You really have to feel sorry for Gordon. He's spent billions of pounds of our money trying to get us out of recession, and yes, we've finally made it. Britain's economy grew by a massive, er, 0.1% in quarter 4 of 2009. This figure is so low that after adjustments, the economy could actually still be in recession.

Let's not split hairs though. It is good news that we are emerging from recession, even if we are the last major country to do so, and even if it has cost us far more than other countries to get to this point.

But the fact that it has taken so long should be a warning signal to everyone, rather than a clear sign of encouragement. It is a signal that internationally, people are still very nervous about the state of the British economy and are still not putting their money here? Why? Because they fear that our out of control government spending may well result in our triple A credit rating being reduced sooner rather than later.

We are not out of the woods yet, and I note an absence of Labour Ministers on our TV screens in the last 15 minutes crowing about their wonderful triumph. They would be well advised to remain silent.

GMTV: The End of Recession?

Guido Morning TV takes a sideways look at Britain emerging from the depths of recession.

The Top 20 Tory & Labour Twitterers

I last compiled this list in April 2009. The number after the name is the number of followers a particular Tweeter has.,

1. - Boris Johnson 64, 124
2. +3 Jonathan Sheppard 21,737
3. -1 Conservative Party 18,555
4. -1 Iain Dale 7,604
5. +1 Grant Shapps 5,754
6. N TrueBlueBlood 4,908
7. -3 James Cleverly 3,710
8. - Tim Montgomerie 3,261
9. +4 Louise Bagshawe 2,387
10. +2 Tory Bear 2,172
11. N Eric Pickles 2,156
12. N Danny Finkelstein 1,889
13. -3 Craig Elder 1,837
14. N Henry Macrory 1,817
15. N Dan Hannan 1,552
16. N Nadine Dorries 1,538
17. N Samuel Coates 1,486
18. N Tory Politico 1,332
19. -4 Jonathan Isaby 1,315
20. -4 Shane Greer 1,278


If you know a Conservative who should be in this list please tell me in the comments.

I have also compiled the Top 20 Labour tweeters. This list is probably more inaccurate, so please, again let me know if you know of Labour members with more supporters than any of those listed below.

1. Sarah Brown 1,121,525
2. Alastair Campbell 14,328
3. John Prescott 12,888
4. Tom Watson 7,314
5. David Miliband 7,186
6. Ed Miliband 5,686
7. Lord Drayson 5,448
8. Ed Balls 5,029
9. Kerry McCarthy 4,827
10. Sadiq Khan 3,876
11. David Lammy 3,637
12. LabourList 3,419
13. Ben Bradshaw 3,042
14. The Fabians 2,975
15. Tom Harris 2,839
16. Stuart Bruce 2,718
17. Kevin Maguire 2,680
18. Cath Elliott 2,611
19. Ellie Gellard 2,177
20. Sion Simon 1,945

Mark Reckons has compiled a list of the Top 20 LibDem Tweeters HERE.

Labour bloggers have been happily retweeting all evening that the next election on Twitter will be between the "Tory machine" and "Labour's grassroots activists". This was the way Tweetminster put it in their report, published today. Assuming that party officials, candidates and MPs are defined as the "party machine" I'd say Tweetminster have got it the wrong way round judging by these two lists. Twelve out of the Top 20 Labour tweeters are in the party machine, compared with 11 Tories.

The full tweetminster report can be read HERE. Unless you have a life.

UPDATE: Tweetminster have written a response to this HERE. I don't really disagree with it. Of course being retweeted and mentioned confers influence. I never denied that. But I do think they underestimate the influence of the number of actual followers. I accept that if a proportion of those followers are Spam Bots, it is a problem, but I always vet my new followers to prevent that being an issue, and if I spot any, I block them.

The Daley (Half) Dozen: Monday

1. Tory Radio on whether David Cameron should start tweeting.
2. Capitalists@Work have a poem for Brown and Blair.
3. Mark Pack has some ideas for the leaders' TV debates.
4. James Cleverly asks if prison works.
5. Tory Bear asks how low the Guardian will go.
6. Catherine Flinn reviews Dilly: The Man Who Broke Enigma.

Speaking in Surrey Heath on 28 January

If you live in the Surrey Heath area and would like to come and hear me speak at the local association's Curzon Supper Club this Thursday 28 January, phone 01276 471068. More details HERE. I can't belieeeeeve they're only charging £15!

UPDATE: Only a few tickets left, they tell me!

A New Role for PPSs?

I've written before about my fears relating to the ability of a new Conservative government to drive forward its agenda in the face of opposition from recalcitrant civil servants. These fears are exacerbated by Conservative plans to halve the number of political advisers. Many people think that this is a decision which could come back to haunt David Cameron.

Labour has doubled the number of special advisers since 1997. Clearly this has gone too far, but the Conservatives shouldn't underestimate the role they have been able to play in driving through Labour's agenda. If the Tories haven't got the same resources available to them, they shouldn't be so naive as to think that ministers will be able to do it all by themselves.

So here's an idea. If there is a Conservative government with a reasonable majority, it is important to find things for backbenchers to do, if only to keep them out of mischief. So my suggestion is this. Instead of appointing one PPS to a Cabinet Minister, each one should have two. They would be unpaid (as now), but one of them would effectively fulfil the role of a second special adviser. The advantages to a Cabinet Minister are clear, but it would also be good for more backbenchenchers to gain experience of how government operates. These PPS's should be carefully chosen, rather than the random process which exists currently. Ideally, they should have some knowledge of the subject area of the department they would be working within.

PPSs need to be more than the proverbial bag carrier. They also need to be more than a Minister's eyes and ears in Parliament. A second PPS in a department will need to augment the work of the Minister's SPAD and to take on an light enforcer and progress chasing role.

Thoughts?

UPDATE: Some interesting comments. The way to avoid increasing the payroll vote is to reduce the number of ministers in the first place. Also, Jimmy's point is (as usual) fatuous as nowehere was I advocating that each and every Minister should have their own dual PPSs. PPSs are normally only allocated to Cabinet Ministers and perhaps five or six senior Ministers of State.

Interviewing David Owen

Tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to be interviewing David Owen for my next In Conversation interview for Total Politics.

Do suggest questions you think I should ask him.

The Daley Dozen: Sunday

1. Life's one long party for Lazy Hyena.
2. O'Conall Street has some serious questions for Gerry Adams.
3. Tory Story NI pleads with Owen Paterson to clear the air about discussions with the DUP.
4. And Jeff Peel is equally unhappy.
5. John Rentoul and Fraser Nelson disagree about the polls.
6. Iain Martin thinks the Tories should do more negative campaigning.
7. Craig Murray on the "murder" of David Kelly.
8. PlayPolitical has the video of Tony Benn and David Davis at the launch on Big Brother Watch.
9. Red Rag has a new Tory election poster.
10. Peter Kenyon thinks Labour NEC members should declare their interests.
11. PoliticalBetting asks if the Tories are planning a decapitation strategy.
12. EU Referendum on another failure by the IPCC.

Modesty Forbids (Almost...)

As you know, I'm a modest sort of guy. Totally unused to blowing my own trumpet. Can't stand these bloggers who think they're God's gift etc etc... BUT... when your Mum phones you and tells you how proud of you she is after reading about you in the Mail on Sunday... well, I'm sure my readers can forgive me quoting this piece from Dylan Jones in the Mail on Sunday magazine today...

There are many reasons to celebrate Iain Dale. The author, journalist and aspirant politician for the Conservative Party is not only a much-valued contributor to GQ, he’s also the publisher of Total Politics magazine and has become something of an online deity because of his celebrated blog, Iain Dale’s Diary.

Always trenchant, rarely out of step, Dale is one of those political commentators who relies more than most on common sense. Take this, from November last year: ‘I couldn’t care less where our Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition went to school, and frankly I care even less where political journalists got their education – assuming most of them actually had any.

‘Yet lobby hacks seem obsessed with the fact that David Cameron went to Eton, along with 5.5 per cent of Tory MPs. It’s a convenient way for some of them to dub Cameron as a Tory Toff. They produce charts showing that 13 of Cameron’s front-bench team attended Britain’s leading public school too, as if they had somehow committed a crime.’

He then goes on to talk about class, education and politics. Anyway, forgive me for quoting this, but it makes a nice change from the bollocks that people usually write about me.

I Am a Great Man

I spent much of today in front of a camera. Nothing new there, you may think, but you'd be wrong. This time it was to appear in a feature film! Admittedly, it's not exactly a starring role, but the experience was good - and different! - nonetheless. The film, which will be released in April, is called I AM A GREAT MAN and is all about a man, Leonard Cartwright, who forms a new political party, Publicus, which, after a general election, holds the balance of power. It's a drama-comedy, but shot as a "mockumentary". I play a TV news anchor who also presents the general election night coverage. I had to shoot in all in front of a green screen, so I can't wait to see the graphics they insert in the editing process.

I had to shoot six short clips at a studio in Camberwell, and one even involved a swingometer. I tried desperately not to do my Peter Snow impression. One thing I did learn was that I am hopeless at learning lines - even if it's just a couple of paragraphs.

A trailer for the movie will be released next week, but in the meantime you can find out more about it via their Facebook Group, Youtube Channel and Twitter feed.

The whole experience today has made me think about what I want to do on election night if I am not a candidate. It reinforced my desire to investigate the possibility of repeating last year's Play Radio experience - all I have to do now is find a radio station who will give me a studio and an internet stream, and then I can recruit my election night posse. Unless, of course, I am spending election night at my own count! We'll see.

Podcast: The 7 Days Show Episode 9

The latest edition of the Seven Days Show is now online.

In this weeks episode we spoke about Have a go heroes – with particular reference to Munir Hussein; Cadbury and their takeover by Kraft; Broken Britain; plans for the manifesto, and whether I'm is going to add football club ownership to list of interestes!

To listen to the podcast click HERE, or you can also subscribe to the show in the Tory Radio section in the podcast area of Itunes.

The MPs With Defeat in Their Eyes

Earlier today Jonathan Isaby posted a list of 46 MPs who currently sit in the top 200 Tory target seats. The thing they have in common is that they are all voluntarily standing down from Parliament at the next election. Today Stephen Hesford (whose opponent is the excellent Esther McVey) announced his departure. On Friday it was government minister Ian Pearson. This week, according to a tweet from Tim Montgomerie, it will be Geoff Hoon's turn. Obviously some of the 46 have entirely understandable reasons for standing down - age, infirmity etc. And yet even the most loyal Labour support knows that all this points to one thing.

They all expect Labour to lose.

TV Debates Hit Problems

The leaders' TV debates are already running into trouble in two ways. the TV schedulers are worried about a clash with Champions' League games, which are being played everu Tuesday and Wesnesday in April. Personally, I would like to see the debates scheduled for a Saturday or Sunday evening, as that would maximise the audience.

The second area of concern is the format of the debates. According to the News of the World there will be absolutely no audience interaction, with people being discouraged from clapping, let along asking questions. This is a pity. I'd far rather audience members got a chance to quiz the leaders with no input from an interviewer at all.

But it is the fact that Labour are apparently insisting on having the lion's share of the audience, on the basis of their parliamentary majority! Astonishing. Or maybe not. Perhaps we should expect it of them.

I'll be discussing the scheduling issue on the Stephen Nolan Show on 5 Live just after 11pm tonight.

The Daley (Half) Dozen: Saturday

1. ConHome on Lord Pearson's new policy on standing against Eurosceptic Tories.
2. Donal Blaney doesn't think much of the LSE's new "Carbon Reduction Manager".
3. Craig Murray on the Islamic threat from Central Asia.
4. Next Left on Rod Liddle and THOSE jokes.
5. Daily Referendum on why we need an election now.
6. PoliticalBetting on the 'blowing' of Brown's master strategy.

Where I Went Wrong With Lord Pearson...

The Daley Dozen: Friday

1. Michael Crick foresees footy problems in scheduling the leaders' TV debates.
2. Norman Tebbit wants an amicable divorce with the EU.
3. Joshua Chambers thinks Nick Clegg is doing well.
4. Tom Harris is asking questions about bonuses for local authority returning officers.
5. Three Thousand Versts thinks th DUP may stand down in favour of the UUP in two seats.
6. Stephen Glenn on how Fife Social Services 'kidnapped' a child.
7. The EDP reveals which Norfolk constituencies will be counting on election night. All 2 of them!
8. Craig Murray accuses Jack Straw of lying to Chilcott.
9. PoliticalBetting thinks Chilcott makes May 6th a certainty.
10. Hopi Sen on a bit of bad projection.
11. Party Lines on defining the core vote.
12. John Rentoul is rubbish. So he says.

Bercow On Election Night Counts

Following Gordon

There an unintentionally hilarious feature in this week's New Statesman in which they ask leading Labour luvvies to speculate on who should succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader. The likes of Melvyn Bragg, Greg Dyke, Ken Loach, Bob Crow et al discuss the respective merits of messers Harman, Milband (twice), Balls, Cruddas and Purnell. All except the Prime Minister's pet pooch, Charlie Whelan...

There's going to be no leadership election because we're going to win the election and Gordon Brown's going to be leader.

Bless.

However, the plot thickens. If we are to believe James Macintyre, Gordon intends to stay on as Labour leader even if he loses. ROFL. Sunder Katwala thinks this is a rather good idea on the basis that you should take at least six months to choose your new leader if you go into Opposition. Actually, I think he has a point. Labour does indeed need to take time over the choice of its next leader and have a full and frank debate about the direction of the party. Assuming, of course that bankruptcy doesn't intervene in the meantime.

The Lord Pearson Interview

Earlier on this month I spent an hour and a half interviewing the new leader of UKIP, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, for the latest IN CONVERSATION interview in Total Politics. The magazine comes out today and you can read the full interview HERE. Lord Pearson is nothing if not honest. He...

• Calls Nigel Farage a 'thoroughbred' and describes himself as a'carthorse
• Describes what went on with Lord Strathclyde and the referendum offer
• Hints that Stratchclyde was all in favour of accepting
• Refuses to guarantee that Better Off Out members won't have UKIP candidates against them
• Admits to needing (and having) media training
• Reveals he has invited Geert Wilders to speak at a conference in March

ID: So what on earth made you decide to stand for leadership of UKIP?
LP: There was quite a lot of arm-twisting from a number of leading people within the party and from several of the major donors.

Because you haven't actually been in the party that long... No, I have only been in the party a couple of years because before that I sat as an Independent Conservative after being sacked from the Conservative Party in great disgrace.

How much of a wrench was it to leave? I was always a rebel. I said I would be loyal to Margaret Thatcher and I remained loyal to her, but that wasn't the same thing as being loyal to Mr Major. I'd been the most rebellious backbench peer in the Lords and when I was sacked for suggesting people should lend their vote to UKIP in the European elections, it was actually a great relief. I have always been a bit of a maverick, so I'm afraid it didn't trouble me at all. I kept my personal friends in the party, not that there's very many of them.

It's slightly ironic though, isn't it, because the Conservative Party is more eurosceptic now than it has ever been?
The Conservative Party, the leadership, isn't nearly eurosceptic enough. The project of European integration, as originally envisaged by Monnet, is complete and everyone knows that. Cameron is simply not telling the truth when he pretends a sovereignty act to prevent further losses of sovereignty to Brussels is meaningful. I think they know he's talking nonsense when he says he can reclaim various powers from Brussels.

But surely he would only be misleading people if there was no further sovereignty to secede to Brussels but there clearly is? What further sovereignty?

Economics and taxation for example.
Well they've got that if they want it.

Well, they don't have the power to raise taxes.
I believe they do. You only have to look at their use of Article 308 [allows EU Council to act on a proposal with extra powers], which they have been using since the French and Dutch rejection of the original constitution, to do anything they wanted, in fact.

But under that Article everything has to happen unanimously. A British prime minister can veto it.
He can, but the British government has not been vetoing it.

No, but a Conservative government could. Yes, for anything new - not what's already been done. Don't forget our old friend the ratchet - the Aquis Communitaire [EU law made so far]. Our position is they don't need anything new now and even if they were to, they are already talking about raising tax and I'm not aware that either Cameron or any of the established parties have screamed about that.

So if all that is true then basically the game's up - what's the point of UKIP?
Because the only way out is the door and the point of UKIP is, in the next general election campaign, to try and inform the public more precisely about why we are in this position. The people have got the point about why this has gone seriously wrong. Even the lawyers and the accountants in the City of London have now got the point. They never cared about the fishermen or any other industries that have been damaged, sometimes to the point of extinction, by our membership of the European Union. But they have now got the point because of the Hedge Fund Directive. People are beginning to see clearly what this project has always been about.

Isn't part of the problem though that you can wax lyrical about Section 308 of the Treaty of Rome or the Hedge Fund Directive all you like, but you've actually got to appeal to people's hearts and minds? Isn't the problem with UKIP that it looks less like the rest of the British people?
Well, that's not what the latest opinion polls would tell you. A large majority of people wish to go back to free trade and friendly collaboration with the European Union. If you ask a slightly different question - do you want to come out? - then that's more frightening. In the general election campaign we are simply going to deliver two messages that are incredibly simple. One is that your democracy has removed your right to elect and dismiss those who make your laws. We are also going to run another idea which hasn't really been tested in the political world and it runs right alongside getting out of the European Union. The idea is direct democracy, power to the people, the Swiss system of referendums and the Daniel Hannan/Douglas Carswell plan. The British people are fed up with all the regulation that is coming at them from Brussels and, to a certain extent, Westminster.

This is where I think you personally have a problem. I could accept a lot of what you say as could most people if it came from Nigel Farage, but people will have more difficulty taking it from an unelected member of the House of Lords.
I've been elected to the leadership and Nigel's one commitment to me is he will remain the chief party spokesman. He's going to be in charge of media relations and he is our front man with the media. Obviously Nigel's a genius, he's a great man and a great politician and I don't pretend to be. He was a Derby winner. UKIP have now got a sort of carthorse [laughs]. We know that and I accept that and I have said that all the way through the hustings.

But we all know that dual leaderships never work. Nigel will be our spokesperson and obviously if I am called upon because I'm the leader then I will speak. I don't detect people are holding my background against me and if they are then there's nothing I can do about it. I'm not going to apologise. I'm not going to resign from White's Club. I'm not going to stop shooting and stalking and I'm going to carry on because I never wanted to be a politician. I have always said I'm not a politician and I'm not and I can't pretend otherwise. And so I make gaffes, I talk about the 'disband' word when what I meant was get together and fight. I've accused the Muslims of breeding ten times faster than us when what I really meant was their population is going up and so on. I've made mistakes and I will probably make more. I try and do better but that's where we are.

Do you not think though that you might be seen as the Ming Campbell of UKIP?
Possibly. I am 67 years old. I have never been much involved in party politics. I've done a bit of canvassing but that's all, so therefore when I look at the structure of a political party I have to learn as I go along. The trouble with UKIP is that its success has outgrown its infrastructure and that needs putting right. Now that's not Nigel's scene. He's not an organisation chart man. He's a political genius and a brilliant man. Organisation charts are not his strong point and he's very happy to leave that to me.

The party itself historically has been a shambles hasn't it, organisationally?
I wouldn't dare use that expression but it has certainly not been very well organised. Our communications have been bad. People have been learning things in the press that they ought to have known about in advance. A proper organisation chart and proper communication is not difficult and we are going to do that. We will have a more efficient fighting machine.

But isn't part of the problem that to do any of what you just said, which is obviously necessary, you have to have money and UKIP has not got the money to do it. In fact, it's got to pay back £360,000.
We have that covered already and I will try and raise more money for the rest of it. One of the reasons I stood for leadership was that I thought, as leader, I would be better able to raise money. As leader, I would be able to raise the sort of money we need or would be more likely to be able to than if one of the other candidates had become leader. When I stood for leadership I didn't have a single enemy. But as leader of course one is bound to make a few. Such as those who find it an anathema that David Willoughby de Broke and I made the offer to the Conservatives which was: Give us a binding referendum on an agreed wording on our membership in the European Union and we will make sure you are in a position to deliver.

I thought the offer was on the Lisbon Treaty?
No, never! Lisbon Treaty was always a red herring really.

You couldn't have seriously expected the Conservatives to accept that. Wasn't that just a bit of trouble-making? No, not at all. Our position in the European Union is now so desperate, the only way out is the door. It is unthinkable that Cameron will get anything worthwhile in any form of renegotiation.

Fair enough. But all I'm trying to understand is your thought process before you put that offer to Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the Lords. You hadn't cleared this with your party colleagues as such. That is not so. This was, we thought, a settled policy from Nigel. He had the support of the National Policy Committee for it. He'd mentioned it at conference, he'd mentioned it live on the Politics Show and certainly to a large lunch I had attended. He was actually cross-examined at the lunch by Freddie Forsyth, who said: "Nigel, did I get this right - what are you saying?" And Nigel said: "A binding referendum with wording we agree, free vote for the Conservative Party and we will..." Nigel did not say disband. I said disband at the end of the conversation with the lovely Alice Thompson and Rachel Sylvester. I should never have used that word. Tom [Strathclyde's] answer to us was: "Are you sure you want this referendum because we will have the new prime minister. Presumably we will be in a honeymoon period. You will have the whole Labour and the whole Liberal Democrat machine against you. Ok, you will have the Conservative activists with you..." My reply was: "I couldn't imagine anything better." Fighting an issue against the whole political class would be wonderful.

And then you heard nothing from them?
No, not a squeak. I went back to Tom as he was seeing David Cameron two days later in a one-to-one, and I asked Tom what had happened the next week. He had said: "Oh, it's all too bloody awful" and disappeared. I mean Tom's a lovely man, but he is part of the Conservative leadership apparatus in that sense.

Did you get the impression that Lord Strathclyde was in favour of it?
Well, he thought we might lose [laughs]. He actually said we might lose, and we said we would have trusted the people. So then I asked someone else who sits on the frontbench, who had better remain nameless: "What's happened to this? We have given this offer and absolutely bloody silence?" They said the Norwich North by-election is coming up and the hope is you will fall back to two or three per cent and we can forget it. Well, we got 13 per cent in Norwich North and in fact 43 per cent in some Cambridge council seats that day. But we have heard no more. And since then, we have got our answer because Cameron has ruled out any referendum for five years thereby slapping in the face the whole of that part of the Conservative Party that actually wanted a referendum, even just on Lisbon.

Would you again now stand against every Conservative candidate including the Better Off Out people?
I hope not.

That's the logical thing to do now.
No it wouldn't be. Let's go back to square one. We must start to build in the House of Commons a genuine come out group of MPs so we will not be standing against Philip Davies, Richard Shepherd and Douglas Carswell, although I'm slightly talking out of turn as I haven't had time to clear this with the relevant constituency chairman and parties.

But this is an existing policy, isn't it?
It is existing policy but it is resisted by some people who want to fight absolutely everything. But if we fail to get a referendum then all you can do is to start building people in the Commons. If there's a seat where we don't think we can get in and there is someone who could get in with our support, who will fight for it, when they get in and not be wishywashy Better off Out of it.

What's wishy-washy about that?
How energetic are these people in the Commons? What questions do they put down? Will they actually fight in the House of Commons for Britain to leave?

You're putting another hurdle in front of them, aren't you?
Yes I am. But each constituency is different, each individual is different, each UKIP political party is different and each individual case has to be looked at on its merits. But it is madness if we put up a candidate against Philip Davies and he doesn't get back into the Commons.

What have you learnt from your first few weeks of being leader? You've had a bit of a baptism of fire. The Daily Telegraph has had a go at you. Was there a point when you thought what on earth have I done?
Oh yes, but I think I am over that now. The 'disband' word and 'breeding' weren't very clever, so I have learnt that one word out of place can cover the whole of the picture on a newspaper. So I have to learn to do better and do less badly in future. I am having media training. What that will do I don't know because a lot of people say that I shouldn't be like 'them'.

You will inevitably be compared with Nigel Farage, won't you?
Yes, and it's a great tragedy he's gone. I didn't want him to go. He was overworked with his job in the European Parliament. I tried to stop him going and I wish he had stayed on as leader, but he hasn't and he is now our spokesman. People will make of me what they make of me and I can't change that in any way and I'm not really going to apologise for it.

But do you think you are going to have to curb your predisposition to be completely honest about stuff?
I hope not.

How will you attract votes from the broader left, not just the white working class left?
I think our policies do appeal to the broader left. Nothing will appeal to the intellectual left and the crazy idiotic political class which have been running this country for far too long. But direct democracy definitely appeals. It isn't just Labour voters we have to make sense to. Don't forget the 40 per cent who have given up voting.

As leader will you be inviting Geert Wilders back to this country?
Yeah, I hope he's coming back in early March.

What purpose does that serve?
We want a conference in London attended by the black Christian community; some of the black African bishops who are really living through what violent Islam means, for instance the wonderful Bishop of Jos in Northern Nigeria whose wife was recently publicly raped and dragged through the streets. These are people who can come and really warn what is in store from violent Islam. I want Geert and the black African bishops there and I also want the mild Islamic community there. I hope we will be producing a charter of Muslim understanding which will be an analysis of those verses in the Qur'an which uphold the disgraceful treatment of women and appeal to the Jihadists. I think our leading expression will be 'gender apartheid' and I think this country needs to address it. It needs to address it in cohesion with the vast majority of mild Muslims who at the moment are sitting there not doing very much.

Do you think there is a sort of apartheid operating in this country at the moment in some parts of our cities, where you have essentially got areas that are entirely inhabited by immigrant communities who have not assimilated into our society at all - what do you do about that?
Surely the minority which isn't trying to assimilate is the Muslim community and Sharia law is gender apartheid. It is accepted by all the Muslims and sometimes it takes precedence over British law. We should be teaming up with Peter Tatchell and the gay lobby and the humanist lobby and so on. It's wrong for all of us.

If we meet in a year's time, what will you hope to achieve by then?
We have to go for a complete re-alignment in British politics and I think the first step towards that has to be a hung Parliament. If we can help to achieve that I will feel we have done quite well. Now I know what they say against that, they say Dave needs a very large majority so he can cut public expenditure in a way to save the country. To which I say, I see no sign of Dave even pretending that he's going to do that. He's backing the 50 per cent tax rate, he's backing the tax on bankers and so on and therefore helping to cripple some of the life blood in this country, part of the GDP [Gross Domestic Product] that comes in through the City of London is oxygenated blood and it's madness to kill that. I don't see that he's talking of cutting anything like the amount that must be cut. So I think a hung Parliament will be fine. It will be a first step.

But how would that benefit UKIP?
We would then be free to join up with decent real people, Liberal Democrats in the south west.

And then you will have a more Europhile government than you had before.
Not necessarily.

If there's a hung Parliament, whoever it is will have to govern with the support of the Liberal Democrats who are the most Europhile party in British politics. If they are in a coalition, it's possible Nick Clegg could be foreign secretary.
So what? The people will get angrier...

...oh so you will be trouble-making?
No, it's not. It's answering what the people need. It's providing the only way out of all this which is UKIP at the moment. Conservative activists will agree with you on that and quite a lot of Liberal Democrats in the south west will agree with you, quite a lot of Labour in the north. What else can we do? What else have they left us with? They have turned down an offer where we put our country before our party. They have done the opposite. The people know that, the people aren't stupid. The people are a bloody lot cleverer than the political class now, which is why they should have binding referendums.

You can read the full interview HERE.